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OPINION

Mayor Strange: Shopping local has a bigger impact than you may realize

Todd Strange, Special to the Advertiser
Published 7:00 a.m. CT Nov. 22, 2018

Today, many of us are taking a few moments to reflect upon the things for which we are thankful. Perhaps you’re blessed to have a loving family, great friends, health and financial resources.

As a community, we have much to be grateful for as well. Our brave police officers are diligently pushing our crime rates down. Montgomery Fire/Rescue Department took top honors at last month’s Firefighter Combat Challenge World Championship and continues to maintain its ISO1 rating. Less than 1 percent of fire departments nationwide are able to attain that status. Both the police and fire departments are training new recruits to ensure they have the necessary staffing levels.

Economically, we are thankful for high employment. More than 90,000 people hold jobs in Montgomery; that’s the second highest figure among Alabama cities. New business steadily set up shop here, and we continue to aggressively pursue economic development projects that will bring in more jobs.

Our tourism industry remains strong. More than a quarter million visitors have come to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and Memorial for Peace and Justice. These tourists are also visiting our other landmarks and attractions; helping them to set attendance records and keeping Montgomery at the top of the highest hotel occupancy rates in Alabama. So far this year, our hotels have hosted nearly 100,000 more room nights compared to this same period in 2017.

Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange(Photo: File)

This month, the Montgomery Internet Exchange (MGMix) set a new record for daily usage, our community’s cyber infrastructure is growing robustly and we have just been recognized as a national leader in Smart City initiatives.

After Thanksgiving, many of us will turn our attention to important gridiron matchups and the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. Some shoppers look forward to Black Friday and Cyber Monday for months. We know that retailers do. The upcoming weeks can have a major impact on their bottom line.

Economists project Alabamians will spend $12 billion in November and December, a holiday record for the state and up more than 4 percent from last year. As merchants vigorously try to entice us to make our purchases with them, it is crucial that we fully consider all of the ramifications of our shopping decisions. When we purchase products locally instead of hitting the internet or going out of town with our dollars, we make it possible to sustain our community’s progress.

Al’s Flowers in the Mulberry Shopping District had a sign last year that eloquently brought that point home, reading, “The internet didn’t re-pave Carter Hill Road.”

Our Street Maintenance Department did a superb job on that project. This kind of work is very technical and comes with a price. City crews (which are much less expensive than if we used contractors) completed the project at a cost of $350,000/mile. We pay about $60/ton for asphalt and more than $80 per cubic yard of concrete.

Each time we shop at Al’s Flowers or with any of our other great merchants, we are impacting our community’s quality of life by making Montgomery more livable and even safer. Each new officer that receives his/her MPD badge represents a $100,000 investment. Our fire/rescue recruits require a similar sized investment before they reach the firehouse.

Alabama is making great strides to require online retailers to pay their fair share; but they still have an unequal advantage over “bricks and mortar” merchants who provide jobs, charitable contributions and great service to our communities.

This year, as you buy gifts for your friends and loved ones, we hope that you’ll “double your gift” by shopping locally.